Long-term care providers may be headed for another major Medicaid-funding fight in 2018 if House GOP leaders get their way.
The House GOP caucus is planning on addressing “entitlement reform” in the Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security programs next year in order to “tackle the debt and the deficit,” House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) told talk radio host Ross Kaminsky on Wednesday.
Ryan cited Medicare and Medicaid as “the big drivers of debt,” and highlighted Medicare as the “biggest entitlement that’s got to have reform” in the coming year.
“Really, what it is is we need to convert our healthcare system to a patient-centered system, so that people have more choices, we have more competition,” he said.
In terms of President Donald Trump’s campaign promise not to cut entitlement programs Ryan said “the president is understanding choice and competition works everywhere, especially in Medicare.”
Ryan’s plans for welfare reform were echoed last week by House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady (R-TX) who said that “welfare reform” would be on the table next following the tax bill, which passed the Senate last week to the disappointment of providers.
